the English who had been reduced to a subordinate state; most of these
now held their land as grants from the Norman barons on condition of
some kind of service. A majority of these men were no longer entirely
free, while some were actual slaves. The greater part of this servile
class were villeins or farm laborers (S150). They were bound to the
soil, and could be sold with it, but not, like the slaves, separately
from it. They could be compelled to perform any menial labor, but
usually held their plots of land and humble cottages on condition of
plowing a certain number of acres or doing a certain number of days'
work in each year. In time the villeins generally obtained the
privilege of paying a fixed money rent, in place of labor, and their
condition gradually improved.

114. How William distributed his Gifts.

Yet it is noticeable that when William granted estates to his Norman
followers (S113), he was careful not to give any baron too much land
in any one county or shire. His experience in Normandy had taught him
that it was better to divide than to concentrate the power of the
great nobles, who were often only too ready to plot to get the crown
for themselves.

Thus William developed and extended the feudal system of land
tenure,[1] already in existence in outline among the Saxons (S86),
until it covered every part of the realm. He, however, kept this
system strictly subordinate to himself, and we shall see that before
the close of his reign he held a great meeting by which he got
absolute control over it (S121).

[1] See, too, the Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, p. v, S6.